Another often-quoted resource is the book "The Story of Charlotte
Mason", by Essex Cholmondeley. This book has JUST been reprinted. It is available in England and other countries from Child Light Publishers, and in the United States from CMSI. I have placed a few quotes that I refer to HERE.

Introduction

Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles

Readings suggested: CM's own Synopsis of her Principles, found in the
Preface of each volume of the Series. Volumes 1 through 5 have 18, Volume 6 has 20(!). If two numbers are indicted, the first will be the numbering from the first 5 Volumes, and the second will be the numbering from Volume 6. In short, the originl numbers 9 & 10 are condensed, new numbers 13, 14, and 14 are inserted, and the reminder renumbered to total 20.

Vol 2, p 127; Vol 3, p 170; Vol 4,
p 32.

The Introduction to each of the first 5 volumes includes 18 Principles,
which Charlotte Mason considered to be the heart of her developing philosophy.
These 18 (below) are titled "A Short Synopsis". If you are endeavoring
to apply these 18 Principles in your home, you may be said to be giving
your children a Charlotte Mason Education. The exact books, curriculum,
and arrangement of your schedule is up to you. There is no set curriculum
or program. There are sample schedules from the old PNEU Parent's Review
magazine, yet they are clearly labeled as samples. The schedule and booklists
changed regularly, deliberately, to stimulate both child and teacher. Therefor,
the Principles are what we need to examine.

The first 4 begin with a discussion of the Child as being a Person,
born complete. We might not consider this such a revelation, but in Charlotte's
day it was unheard-of. Yet every mother knows her child is an individual-
some are calm, some alert, and so on. Charlotte Mason decided this individuality
was to be cherished, and decided we have only three permissible tools for
education: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, and a Life. Most of
the rest of her books discuss the application of these three great concepts,
and we will examine specifics in these Topics. The final three concepts
embodied in the Principles are: Education is the Science of Relations,
The Way of the Will, and The Way of Reason.

Since I was asked, here are the 18 Principles (which expand to 20 by Volume 6):

I will type the 18 out here for anyone who needs them, because they
are basic, but I can't type every quote and passage from the books. I hope
you are able to beg, buy, or borrow a copy of the Series for yourself as
soon as possible. There is so much to learn!
From the Preface to Volume 4 (which happened to be the top one on my
stack):
1) Children are born *persons*.
2) They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good
and evil.
3) The principles of authority on the one hand and obedience on the other,
are natural, necessary and fundamental; but -
4) These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of
children, which must not be encroached upon, whether by fear or love,
suggestion or influence, or undue play upon any one natural desire.
5) Therefor we are limited to three educational instruments - the
atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of
living ideas.
6) By the saying, EDUCATION IS AN ATMOSPHERE, it is not meant that a child
should be isolated in what may be called "a child environment," especially
adapted and prepared ; but that we should take into account the educational
value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things,
and should let him live naturally among his natural conditions. It
stultifies a child to bring down his world to the 'child's' level.
7) By EDUCATION IS A DISCIPLINE, is meant the discipline of habits formed
definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists
tell us of the adaptation of brain structure to habitual lines of thought -
i.e., to our habits.
8) In saying that EDUCATION IS A LIFE, the need of intellectual and moral
as well as physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and
therefor children should have a generous curriculum.
9) But the mind is not a receptacle into which ideas must be dropped, each
idea adding to an 'apperception mass' of it's like, the theory upon which
the Herbartian doctrine of interest rests.
(see pages 58-61 in Volume 3, School Education)
10) On the contrary, a child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas ; but is
rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an
appetite for all knowledge. This is it's proper diet, with which it is
prepared to deal, and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does
foodstuffs.
11) This difference is not a verbal quibble. The Herbartian doctrine lays
the stress of education - the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels,
presented in due order - upon the teacher. Children taught upon this
principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge ;
and the teacher's axiom is, "What a child learns matters less than how he
learns it."
12) But, believing that the normal child has powers of mind that fit him to
deal with all knowledge proper to him, we must give him a full and generous
curriculum ; taking care, only, that the knowledge offered to him is vital
- that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. out
of this conception comes the principle that -
13) EDUCATION IS THE SCIENCE OF RELATIONS ; that is, that a child has
natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts : so we must
train him upon physical exercises, nature, handicrafts, science and art,
and upon *many living* books ; for we know that our business is, not to
teach him all about anything, but to help him make as valid as many as my
be of - 'Those first-born affinities That fit our new existence to existing
things.'
14) There are also two secrets of moral and intellectual self-management
which should be offered to children ; these we may call the Way of the Will
and the Way of the Reason.
15) *The Way of the Will*. - Children should be taught -
(a) To distinguish between 'I want" and 'I will'.
(b) that the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that
which we desire but do not will.
c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite
different thing, entertaining or interesting.
(d) That, after a little rest in this way, the will returns to it's work
with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as
*diversion*, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort,
that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion, even
self-suggestion - as an aid to the will, is to be depreciated, as tending
to stultify and stereotype character. It would seem spontaneity is a
condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of
failure as well as success.)
16) *The Way of the Reason* - We should teach children, too, not to 'lean'
(too confidently) 'unto their own understanding,' because the function of
reason is, to give logical demonstration
(a) of mathematical truth ; and
(b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will.
In the former case reason is, perhaps, an infallible guide, but in the
second it is not always a safe one ; for whether that initial idea be right
or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.
17) Therefor children should be taught, as they become mature enough to
understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests upon
them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of initial ideas. To help
them in this choice we should give them principles of conduct and a wide
range of the knowledge fitted for them.
These three principles (15, 16, & 17) should save children from some of
the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a
lower level than we need.
18) We should allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and
'spiritual' life of children ; but should teach them that the divine Spirit
has constant access to their spirits, and is their continual helper in all
the interests, duties, and joys of life.

Good and Bad

Authority and Obedience

3. The principles of authority on the one hand and
obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and
fundamental; but--

Topic #4

Personality of the Children

Quite some time ago ;) we began to take a look at the
principles of education compiled by Charlotte Mason and
listed in each of the six volumes of TOHSS.

We left off our study with Principle 3 of those Charlotte
Mason included in the synopsis of her philosophy of
education.

3. The principles of authority on the one hand and
obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and
fundamental; but--

Let's pick up with number 4:

4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the
personality of children, which must not be encroached upon,
whether by fear or love, suggestion or influence, or undue
play upon any one natural desire.

She refers to principle 1 here-"Children are born persons."
Here's a passage referring to the personhood of the child
from Volume 3 p 186:

We do not talk about developing [the child's] faculties,
training his moral nature, guiding his religious feelings,
educating him with a view to his social standing or his
future calling. The joys of 'child-study' are not for us.
We take the child for granted, or rather, we take him as we
find him--a person with an enormous number of healthy
affinities, embryo attachments; and we think it is our chief
business to give him a chance to make the largest possible
number of these attachments valid.

(me again) Sometimes Charlotte Mason can be downright
confusing, huh? On the one hand she talks endlessly about
the parents' role in developing a child's character and the
parents' responsibility to the nation in bringing up their
children (an idea we 'colonists' have little sympathy with),
and here she is saying what seems to be the opposite!

I think, actually, she's making a subtle distinction, a
distinction she feels is vital. The child comes to us with
'faculties'--we as parents and educators provide opportunity
for those 'faculties' to be utilized. In using the
'faculties,' they are strengthened. The child must do the
work himself.

We get a little nervous when she says we oughtn't try to
'train [the child's] moral nature.' We must understand that
she means we _can't_ change a child's moral nature. A child
is born with a natural affinity toward his creator (remember
that Jesus said one must become as a little child in order
to see the Kingdom of Heaven), and it is our job to nourish
that affinity. We read Holy Scripture with the child, and
share with him the idea of God as Father, King, Shepherd,
etc. We model piety and fear of God with our lives. But we
can't _make_ the child love God; we can't awaken his spirit.
God has given the child a spirit, and Holy Spirit does the
quickening.

What does all this have to do with priniciple 4? Often, we
as parents and teachers try to "speed things along" by using
our influence on children. "If you love mommy, you will..."
Someone recently explained to me that in CMs day this
"influence" phenomena was nearly out of control--that women
especially were expected to be able to control the behavior
of those under their influence--a sickly sweet cloying sort
of influence. While parents and educators today may not go
to that extreme, we all know of children who bolt from under
their parents' influence to pursue a lifestyle radically
different from that which the parents had been enforcing.
Without over-generalising, we can suspect that those parents
were depending on "fear or love, suggestion or influence" to
an unhealthy extreme.

CM also disapproves utilizing "undue play upon any one
natural desire" Here's a bit she wrote on that topic from
Volume 3, p225

"...so children come into the world with a few inherent
desires, some with more, some less, to incite them to their
proper activities. These are, roughly speaking, the desire
for power, for praise, for wealth, for distinction, for
society, and for _knowledge_. It seems to me that
education, which appeals to the desire for wealth (marks,
prizes, scholarships, or the like), or to the desire of
excelling (as in the taking of places, etc), or to any other
of the natural desires, except that for knowledge, destroys
the balance of character; and, what is even more fatal,
destroys by inanition that desire for and delight in
knowledge which is meant for our joy and enrichment through
the whole of life. "

So she's encouraging the right use of our authority and
parents and teachers. We are not to use any old means
thinking we'll achieve the same end. Charlotte Mason firmly
believes that the means (the way we teach) have a direct
effect on the end (the student as 'final product'). We
cannot promote good schoolwork by means of prizes or
whatever and expect the same kind of learning to take place
as if we had depended on the natural desire for and delight
in knowledge for its own sake.

So we see in these two principles Charlotte Mason's ideas on
authority. She feels that recognition of natural authority
is absolutely necessary in the home and in the school. On
the other hand, the one in authority must be mindful of the
One who has given that authority and be mindful to make wise
use of that authority.

I realize that this is pretty philosophical stuff--not like
"how to teach math the CM way," but I think it's helpful to
understand the basis for the education principles that we
enjoy utilizing.

What do you think?

cathy in pa

Principle #5

Three Limitations

Principle number 5 is a conclusion, an aphorism summing up and applying the
logical thought of the first 4. It is also an introduction to numbers 6, 7,
and 8, which we will examine individually in future weeks.

Charlotte Mason said:
"5) Therefor we are limited to three educational instruments - the
atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of
living ideas. "

Ouch. We speak so much about CM being so free, so adaptable, so easy to
individualize - and here we are firmly presented with limits. In the first
four Principles we are given outlines of authority and obedience, of
rights, of personality. In Principle 4 we are given several ways we may NOT
teach. Now in #5 we are given three ways we can - but only three!

For reference, here are #6, #7, and #8 - the points that CM is working
toward.
6) By the saying, EDUCATION IS AN ATMOSPHERE, it is not meant that a child
should be isolated in what may be called "a child environment," especially
adapted and prepared ; but that we should take into account the educational
value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things,
and should let him live naturally among his natural conditions. It
stultifies a child to bring down his world to the 'child's' level. 7) By
EDUCATION IS A DISCIPLINE, is meant the discipline of habits formed
definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists
tell us of the adaptation of brain structure to habitual lines of thought -
i.e., to our habits. 8) In saying that EDUCATION IS A LIFE, the need of
intellectual and moral as well as physical sustenance is implied. The mind
feeds on ideas, and therefor children should have a generous curriculum.

So, these are the points *I* will work toward, though I will leave
discussing them for later. For now, let me simply keep them in mind while I
examine #5. If we say we are living a Charlotte Mason lifestyle, if we are
employing Charlotte Mason methods in our children's education (in any
setting - home, private, public, Sunday School and so on) then these
Principles MUST form our framework.

We may use the "atmosphere of environment". Whew! I may play music, I may
post art that I like, I may take my child on field trips and Nature Walks!
I take this phrase to mean that the environment includes the emotional
overtones ; IF I play classical music constantly, but hate it myself, my
child is going to feel this without my saying a word! My child will NOT
grow up to love Mozart. However, if I love Gilbert and Sullivan and play
them and sing the silly songs, my child will probably also learn to love
them. If I happen to love something that I know is bad for me, that I am
trying to conquer, I cannot hide this from my child. I may tell them that I
play this music that I am not used to *because* I am trying to improve my
choices. This is not unnatural play upon anyone's sympathy, but instead is
enlisting my child to help me in truth. We may learn to love Mozart
together!

We may use the "discipline of habit". Has anyone else noticed how very much
CM depended upon Habit? If there is anything that can be considered "CM
Preschool", it is the deliberate development of Habits! So much that many
consider CM : Masterly Inactivity, Delight-Directed-Studies and more,
depends upon first developing proper habits. Many people consider the CM
method to be a kind of "Unschooling". I disagree with this - the freedom
comes within bounds, it is Liberty, not License. Habits properly taught
give us the beginning of these liberties.

And third, we may use the "Presentation of Living Ideas". Hooray - I know
where to find those! I can give my child books - encounters with the best
minds in the world, though living or dead! My child may collect a different
"Idea" from the same book I read, but we both meet real ideas! We can go
meet real people! I can get a
chemistry kit and we can do some experiments together, and talk about them.
We can get a book of Edison's Experiments and see how many we can repeat.
We can go on Nature Walks and come home to read about the bird we saw.

Shall I give my child ersatz ideas, cardboard instead of bread? Shall I
give them pre-digested pabulum, tell them to fill in the blank with only
this word that someone else has decided is the correct answer? Shall we
only add chemical 'a' to solid 'b', and never see what happens if we use
'c' instead? (This can get messy!)

Education can ONLY be a Life, if it contains life. Life cannot be created
in a test tube! Your child may play with Edison Experiments forever, but
she will never create a living thing. Life comes two ways - we get it from
the Breath of God, which none of us can reproduce. We CAN get it from each
other - directly from mind to mind, in Ideas! These Ideas may be written
down - shared around the world in a few seconds by the blessing of email
and the Internet; and written down in more permanent form in Books!
Edison's Ideas wait within those covers. Rousseau's "Emile" lives.
Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank live again.

----------------------------

Tell us ways that you embody these three acceptable tools of education in
your home, in your children's education, in your communities.

How do you determine if a book contains living ideas, whether it is ersatz
cardboard or real meat?

Has your child ever met a real, living person who lived through a
concentration camp? One who was in an Iron Lung from Polio? Sat down with a
War Veteran and listened to the stories of whichever war the soldier saw?
Talked to a hundred- year old person about the changes they have seen? Has
your family ever taken a short-term 'mission' trip to build a school or an
orphanage? Do you participate in historical re-enactment? And, most of all,
have they 'met' the real people in the pages of their Bibles?

How do you create the atmosphere of your home? (Or DO you?)

Are you having any troubles with these ideas? For example, is your home a
virtual war zone and you need help? Have you made so many mistakes you
don't know how to begin again?

Are your children addicted to workbooks and cry when you open a book? Have
you changed methods and changed books so many times your dear family groans
when you say you want to try something new? We've been here too - ask us, and we will offer what tips we've gathered.

Lynn H

Topic #6

Education is an Atmosphere

"6) By the saying, EDUCATION IS AN ATMOSPHERE, it is not meant that a child
should be isolated in what may be called "a child environment," especially
adapted and prepared ; but that we should take into account the educational
value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things,
and should let him live naturally among his natural conditions. It
stultifies a child to bring down his world to the 'child's' level. "

You might go back to #5, and remember that Atmosphere is one of the three
allowable methods of teaching. Here she again says what we may NOT do - we
should not isolate the child in an artificial environment. I do not think,
in this case, that she is saying we should not do things like provide
real-but-child-size tools, such as brooms and carpet sweepers, or even that
we should not provide toy kitchens and plastic ovens that bake real cookies
under a light bulb.

There is a program of education that does provide the real but small
tools, ideally in a miniature setting where everything is to lead the child
along in a developmental program. Instead of educating the child IN their
normal home, the child is to be educated BY the carefully-managed
surroundings. The program I am describing is of course Montessori, which
CM was aware of. Montessori was developed for war orphans who had been
deprived of a normal childhood. It worked wonderfully - so it was decided
to try the program with normal children.

I believe this idea also applies to many kindergarten programs, and to
homes where the children were kept in nurseries. The children do not
experience 'normal' life in these environments, no matter how carefully
designed they are. Charlotte said the child needed to live naturally in a
normal home. Normal homes include toys for children, sometimes playrooms,
libraries, mama's sewing room (or corner), Dad's workshop and so on. There
may be a formal living room, or an all-purpose family room. The child
should live there just as the parents do.

Atmosphere also includes the emotional factors - no matter where the child
is, are they accepted, loved, valued for themselves? Is there hope, sure
expectations, security? Are there real-life situations encouraging
consideration of others? Are the 'vibes' good or bad?

Let us look quickly at a few resources found in the normal environment.
There are people! Children don't live alone, there are other people in a
home and those other persons have educational value. These might include
Grandparents, who have stories of childhood long ago and far away. Grandpa
may be an old soldier, who can tell the child of wars and battles that
changed the world. Add a globe or a map, and you have living history right
in your living room! Perhaps you have a relative who was in an iron lung? A
relative who has been a missionary, even a short-term trip?
Where have relatives traveled? Grandma might send postcards from 21
countries in 24 days, and come home with a suitcase full of costumed dolls
of many lands, or music boxes, and a pocketful of coins. An uncle in the
military might send home rock samples from far lands.

Having mentioned their souvenirs, let us go on to the 'things' in a normal
home. There is educational
value in things. Stamp collections, coin collections, dolls, even Grandma's
music boxes can expand a child's concept of the world. Books fill the
shelves with enticing visits to other lands and times. Children should
learn to sew, to use real tools, to cook. There has been some discussion of
'learning centers'. I would describe these areas of a normal home as
natural learning centers.

More learning centers might be provided, of course. We filled a small dry
sink (a cupboard) with art supplies, and kept it in a corner with two art
easels (large and small). I put our chalk board on the wall there, and a
set of coat hooks supported not only coats but our metal detector and one
of our telescopes. Another corner in another room became my music corner -
shelves for our books, a music stand, a comfortable chair and a good light.
Our house is not large, but keeping materials together makes learning occur
easily. Adjust for your lives - when my children outgrew the sturdy small
art easel, I passed it on to my brother. Each child also has a small desk
in their room, for quiet work.

----------------------------
Discussion Starters (some of these are repeated from earlier studies on the
above books)

Describe for us the Atmosphere of your home in general. When I walk in the
door, what will I feel, and why?
What have you done to provide for the emotional or Spiritual atmosphere of
your home?

Tell us about some of the special resources you have - your relatives and
neighbors, special possessions.

If you have set up learning centers, describe what you have done, and why.
How have you set up your home for learning to take place at all times?
Do you have a learning room or a whole learning home? Describe it.
What about Discovery Corners...what learning activities are available to
encourage your little ones to learn at all times?
What about your home library...how are you organizing it...how are you
building it...tips?
How have you created a learning environment in your home?
How do you document learning such as this for reporting...if you are
required to report it to a cover or the state?
What about your daily life?? How does this affect the atmosphere of your
home? How does this affect your goals? How does this affect your
priorities?

Lynn H

Topic #7

Education is a Discipline

From Volume 4, I copy :
"7) By EDUCATION IS A DISCIPLINE, is meant the discipline of habits formed
definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists
tell us of the adaptation of brain structure to habitual lines of thought -
i.e., to our habits. "

While some of the Principles vary slightly in wording between the Volumes,
reflecting Charlotte's developing thought, this one remains the same. She
is not referring to Discipline in the way we more commonly do, as a process
of child training. Instead, it's clear she refers to a Habit of learning.
This is NOT one of the 20 Habits taught to small children.

John Bunyan's biography
Pilgrim's Progress
The Holy War
Grace Abounding
-- all available online from the Bunyan Index site
Charlotte Mason Study Guide
pages 82-85 The Way of the Will
pages 31-37 Habits and Character

A Charlotte Mason Education
pages 73-83

A Charlotte Mason Companion
Chapter 9 (p 69-77)
Chapter 10 (p 79-87)

The Original Home Education Series
Volume 1, part IV "Some Habits of Mind - Some Moral Habits"
Volume 1, part VI "The Will - The Conscience - the Divine Life in the
Child"
Volume 3, Chapter XII "Some Unconsidered Aspects of Moral Training"
Volume 4, Introduction (Mansoul readings for the teens)
Volume 4, Part II "The House of Mind" (readings for teens)
Volume 6, Book 1, Chapter VIII "The Way of the Will"
the Bible, KJV, Isaiah 14:13 ; Psalm 32

Many of these s refer to child-training, but please apply the
thoughts to the larger concept of a Habit of Learning. Habit is the tool
that Charlotte Mason says will free both the child and the parent. Here is
the phrase that caught her mind from a sermon, "Habit is ten
Natures." This sermon quote, and the train of thought that it evoked, are
in Series Volume I, the chapter which begins on page 96.

One problem of Education as a Discipline, is that it MUST be, or become, a
self-discipline! To set the schedule of lessons for your small children is
one job for the parents, yet as the children enter the teen years they need
to take more responsibility for their own learning. They need to give
input, and they need to be able to adapt their own schedule around jobs and
activities. This is not difficult for the child who loves to learn AND who
has developed the Will to learn AND who has the Habit of Self-Discipline.

Let me try an example. Let us say that YOU have decided to learn Latin. You
are inspired by the recent discussion led by Betsy, or the constant
discussion on learning languages. You purchase Ullman and Henry's "Latin
For Americans" as a suitable text for an adult. You purchase Macaulay, and
Caesar's History and Virgil in both Latin and an English translation, and a
Douay Bible, and videos of Ben Hur and Cleopatra. You fill a whole shopping
bag with materials to learn Latin. You are prepared!

But, do you use them, or does the shopping bag sit under your table of
potted plants collecting dust? When you set your daily schedule, along with
your personal Bible time and the children's Bible time and the children's
lessons, do you schedule your OWN study time several times a week?

Let me encourage you to develop this Habit. A personal example : Some years
ago I decided I wanted to learn to play an instrument, and I decided on the
Recorder. I was inspired by a preacher/friend's sermon on "No Regrets".
Now, my childhood was not without music. I had two years of weekly group
violin lessons on a concert-quality heirloom violin, a year of Cornet
lessons on a silver cornet, about 4 years of piano lessons from a Master
Teacher whose son is now a concert cellist whose name many of you would
recognize - I see him on TV. We had musical toys of all descriptions,
including guitars, recorders and ocarina. The family consensus was that
Lynn should have had voice lessons instead, that I am hopeless with any
instrument. (OK, I was the only one in the family who could sound the conch
trumpet Dad brought home from New Zealand. THAT impressed them.)

Still, with my small daughter taking piano, I decided to learn the
Recorder. As a homeschooler, I was receiving the flood of catalogs, and in
one I found a package deal : TWO Yamaha Recorders, a record, and a fat
self-instruction manual using traditional folksongs and ballads. I bought
it. More than that , I sat down every evening when my chores were done,
while the family was watching TV in the other room, and I practiced. By my
father's birthday, I could play a recognizable "Happy Birthday". (That
startled them!) By Christmas I could play almost all the carols when our
church went caroling. By the next Summer, when I saw my friend again, I
was learning hymns from the church hymnal. I told him - no regrets!

More than the satisfaction this gave me, more than the fun of surprising my
family, was the totally unexpected effect this had on my children! Our
homeschooling went forward by leaps and bounds - the children saw mama
studying for pleasure, and this smoothed the way of learning for them. We
had the Habit of Self-Discipline as an ACTIVE part of our home, and the
effect was incredible.

By this time it should be clear that Education as a Discipline has a GREAT
deal to do with the Will. I can desire to learn that Latin, but until I
exert my Will upon myself those books will remain in the bag. I can be
weak-willed, intending to get around to it and sometimes actually doing so;
OR I can exert my Will in small steps, set myself a daily allotment of 15
minutes that I allow nothing to interfere, and surprise myself with
how well I get on!

Karen Andreola's chapter 10 in the "Charlotte Mason
Companion" is one of my favorites on the nuts and bolts of developing your
Will. She talks about Will and Character, which I find to be an interesting
combination. As you develop your Will in the proper Habits, you develop
your Character. Thus, if you Discipline yourself, you strengthen your Will,
AND you develop your Character!

Questions for discussion:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you think of Education, of life-long learning, as a Habit? What are you
studying yourself at this time? Music, a language, sewing or designing a
garden can all enrich your lives, but I refer here to things you yourself
are in the
process of learning, not practicing what you already know.

Setting your family's daily schedule is sometimes one of the most
complicated parts of a CM life. Tell us how you USE the daily schedule to
train your children to become self disciplined.

Tell us about your older children, the high school and above learners. Do
they manage their own schedules? Can they plan a day, a week, a college
semester? Do they maintain the Discipline of a life long learning pattern
AFTER they graduate?

I have given you TWO sermon quotes above, and how they affected Charlotte
Mason and myself. Tell us of a sermon quote or Bible passage that affected
you, and of the results in Education and Discipline.

Answering my own questions briefly:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obviously, yes. I taught myself music, I steadily study books, I really am
beginning that structured study of Latin (that's MY shopping bag under the
plant table...) I am finding it very hard to schedule that 15 minutes a
day. Somehow my life has become full of complications and I am constantly
having to drop everything and run off for several hours. Even my housework
is suffering.

Using the schedule, and older children? Right now I am blessed with a
teenage boy. Teens hate to get up, they need a lot of sleep, and he is no
different. He also hates me to call him even once, let alone over and over
and over.... I won't let him sleep in, I insist on him getting up on time.
I have told him that if he doesn't want me to knock on his door, he has to
set his alarm clock and get himself UP. A few times he has had to suffer
natural consequences - he's over slept, he's been late! I could force him
to get up, but that would develop a weak will dependent on others. I prefer
that he suffer small troubles now, and develop the strong Will of
self-discipline. Today is the day we have set to discuss his studies and
schedule for next year, and I will be very interested to see what he has
planned. Yes, I have some notes of my own, but he says he has it all
planned out. I am glad to hear that he has done so. I see it as developing
Discipline.

Lynn H

Topic #8

Education is a Life

Principle #8, from the Preface to Volume 6 :
"In saying that 'education is a life' the need of intellectual and moral as
well as physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and
therefor children should have a generous curriculum."

Perhaps I am the last to notice this, but as I went through reading all I
could find on this thought I made one of those discoveries that leaves you
feeling like a dunce. I discovered that the Principles are the outline for
Volume 6, Book 1. It's not a one-to-one correspondence with the chapters,
but the topics are followed in order. Why have I never noticed this before?
I suppose it's like reading the Bible regularly - you read the same passage
a dozen times, and one day you see something completely new! My mind is
currently focused upon Principles, so NOW I see them!

I sent the selection of Chapter 6, Volume 6 that covers Principle #8 this
morning, since it was not a long selection. I cannot explain the thought
better than CM does. I can and will discuss the comparisons, and ask a few
questions.

We talk about 'balanced meals', children exercise upon 'balance beams', we
'balance' our budgets and checkbooks and laundry loads. Have you applied
this thought of 'Balance' to your children's' education? Charlotte Mason
divides education into three areas here - intellectual, moral, and
physical. If we do not equally emphasize each area, we are out of balance,
we wobble, we crash to a stop! Our washing machine dances across the floor
going whap-whap-whap-bang as the bottles of softener tumble! Now we must
analyze the load, find the overload and underload, and redistribute the
mass evenly. If we do not balance the load - none of it gets done at all.

I do not think most of us have trouble within each area. We know our
children need math and literature and Sciences and Arts and languages. We
may emphasize one more for a season, preparing for a History Fair or a
play, but over the long haul we plan to include it all. Even modern
colleges insist upon students taking a certain number of basic classes
outside their 'core'. When my sister was in college, I encouraged her to
take one class per semester that had nothing to do with her major area
(math). For many years I kept a letter she wrote to me about this. She was
taking an introductory course, and swearing this was her first and only
course in Philosophy, as she was finding it very difficult! She had been
told to read the "Silent Planet" series for her term paper, and wanted to
know if "Perelandra" contained any reference to Plato? Well, "Perelandra"
is completely an application of Plato, which I told her. She read the
books, she wrote the paper, she took more Philosophy classes, she became
the President of the campus Philosophy Club, she was hostess to various
speakers who came to the college including Senator Edward Kennedy and
Francis Schaeffer. She graduated with a double Major. She earned two
Master's Degrees, one in Mathematics and one in Logic (Philosophy). For her
graduation gift I had that letter nicely framed - the one where she told me
she would never take another Philosophy class!

We Americans are well-known for our love of sports. Many find themselves
caught up in a frantic round of practices and competitions. A
probably-incomplete list of the activities my own children participated in
would include swimming, floor gymnastics, Shotokan Karate, ice skating, and
the Recreation Center's annual cycle of sports : Flag football, basketball,
soccer, T Ball/Softball/baseball by age. Sometimes seasons would overlap,
so we would be overlapping practices. I remember one insane February when I
was the taxi as my two children were each involved in three different
sports, each of which met on at least two nights. I needed that bumper
sticker - the one that says "If I am a homemaker, why am I always in the
car?". Where was hubby? Coaching! Presently I am taking physical therapy
twice a week, for troubles with my back. I notice that I move from machine
to machine, working on different muscle groups. I do situps against a
weighted bar, then do a leg machine, then cross-pull arm weights, then back
to a twisting thing and around with a different set of machines to start
over with the same muscle groups. Finally I do balancing sags and toe
touches and some bench exercises with a huge ball. The final one has me
balanced on my shoulders with my ankles supported on a ball - forced to
balance with my back muscles. The emphasis in all of this is balance - use
too much force with the wrong muscle group, and down I tumble.

Third, there is Moral life, usually covered in church. Charlotte Mason
thought it was important that the parents be a child's primary instructors
in Religion. Bible and Moral Object lessons are the first on the daily
sample schedules, every day of the week. How many families do you know
where the only religious instruction is that someone drives the children to
Sunday School and drops them off (or loads them on the first bus past the
door)? Sometimes the parents come back for church service, more often they
don't, and the family Bible is covered with dust? A dear Pastor I had once
said that his father drove him to church every Sunday, and chose the church
based on its location across the State line in a 'wet' State so that he
could (and did) spend Sunday morning in a bar. This Pastor was married and
a prosperous businessman with children of his own before he entered a
church again, when he and his wife decided their children ought to attend
Sunday School. The church happened to be a good one, he got saved and was
called to preach.

At various times we have been overloaded in any of the three areas, and
have had to take steps to redistribute the load. When we found ourselves
overloaded with church, we had to learn to say no, to not participate in
all the activities our church offers. When we found ourselves doing
homework at midnight, there had to be some modification in lessons. And
when we spent all of our time in the car going to sports activities, we had
to set limits.

A few Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How do you find the point of balance in your home? I admit freely that my
load is out of balance and may tumble at any moment. Are you also finding
one area to be too well covered, or not enough?

If one area is out of balance, do the others rapidly also fail?

Tell us how you plan your Bible and Moral studies? What materials have you
found that work well at home, with mixed age groups, with teens? How do you
manage your personal Bible study time?

How do you ensure balance in physical training? Do your children
participate in groups activities such as team sports in season? Does your
family take long bicycle trips together? Do you plan your daily walks to
cover a variety of terrain?

And how do you maintain balance in intellectual pursuits? if your child is
musically gifted, playing multiple instruments, do you emphasize music
practice or do you widen the number of subjects he is to study each day?
When he is rehearsing for the orchestra production do you insist he finish
his math and German lessons? (OK, that's a loaded question, but I know such
a child.)

Enough - let us hear from you!

Lynn H

Topics #9 (a spiritual organism) and #10 (such a doctrine)

It works out well that I approach these two together, because they are
opposite sides of a single concept. Charlotte Mason dealt with them in a
single chapter of Volume 6 - see chapter VII beginning on page 112. The two
are :

9. We hold that the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is
rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an
appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is
prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does
foodstuffs.

10. Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle,
lays the stress of education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing
morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle
are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the
teacher's axiom is ,' what a child learns matters less than how he learns
it."

In her common way of setting up thoughts in order to find the faults within
them, CM begins with a detailed consideration of Herbartian theory. Volume
6 is not the only place she deals with him - you will find more in Volume
3. Herbart was a major German Education Philosopher - I had to read much of
him in my own college training. Herbart is VERY popular in modern circles -
the idea that the "How" is more important than the "What" extends not only
through the children's education but also through the teachers! It is
considered that a teacher can teach anything by simply knowing the method.
Imagine that - a math teacher no longer needs to know math, but only how to
pass out the worksheets and guide the children through them....

It amazes me that the same people who seriously believe this stuff, can
turn around and with a straight face say that parents are not qualified to
teach their own children.

Does the Herbartian school have ANY validity? Is it possible to pour facts
into a mind, to form that mind out of the information?

Or, let us look at the flip side - the spiritual organism whose proper food
is ideas. IF this mind is a spirit, and ideas are things of the spirit yet
related to solid facts, then can we possibly teach facts without reaching,
without utilizing the spirit?

I would much prefer that my mind 'grow fat' upon ideas! Sergeant Friday's
"Just the facts", is not for me. I deal in facts with Science, yet the
facts are only the anchor for the idea.

I recently tried to read a novel that was given to me. The author may write
excellent English, probably better than my own, yet I was bored, exhausted
reading it. I gave up, tossed it aside and took up the books I had in my
bag : "The Deerslayer", "The Iliad", and "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat".
These books are not easy reading! Yet, I found them relaxing! The early
adventures of Natty Bumpo eased my tired mind and took me out of my sickbed
(don't get excited, it's just a miserable cold). To me, the highest point
of the book was when Hetty answered the Indian with "Let God be true and
every man a liar!".

The Iliad touched me with the pathos of tragedy, with the details of the
lives ruined. The science essays in Schrodinger's Cat stretch my mind. I
don't agree with many things in these books, but they are FULL of ideas.
When I read these my mind churns for hours with interesting conjecture. I
read in several books at once, keeping one in my bag and others where I may
be. I don't seem to have any trouble, any confusion as I go from one to
another.

Tell me, is it important to know the names and origins of the ships and men
at Troy? If not, why did Homer spend pages and stanzas of his epic listing
them with descriptions? Remember - this was an ORAL work. To recite this
poem was the work of days, of an incredible memory. I remember many of the
details even now, yet I was not reading with the sort of concentration
expected of a CM student. The details remain in my mind because they were
the anchor points of the poem. I am reading a prose version, yet the idea
excites.

Schrodinger's Cat is a collection of popularized articles (meaning
magazine-style rather than research reports or textbooks) about quantum
physics. Even as magazine level, this is heavy stuff. Does it really
matter, it asks, whether the cat in the box is alive or not? Can there
exist a state where the cat is actually in limbo until someone looks? Does
the tree falling in the forest make noise? These are real questions, and
quantum physics is the Science where the answers matter. Now tell me, are
these facts we are dealing with - or Ideas?

Herbart would hand me a list of the men and ships; a mathematical treatment
of the equations of quarks; Bible catechism to memorize to answer the
questions of unbelievers. Somehow, I doubt the facts, just the facts, would
stick in my mind any better than they did in Hetty's ; yet the truth of the
Idea certainly reaches the minds!